Earthquake hits near Victoria

Originally published December 30, 2015 at 6:48 am
Updated December 31, 2015 at 1:54 pm

A transit security officer, right, directs a passenger where to catch a bus outside the Commercial-Broadway Skytrain station after the commuter train system was shut down to check for any possible damage to elevated guideways in Vancouver, British Columbia, early Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2015, after an earthquake struck off the western coast late Tuesday night. The moderate quake struck at 11:39 p.m. local time Tuesday about 20 kilometres north of Victoria and was felt across much of southern British Columbia. (Darryl Dyck / The Canadian Press)

A 4.8-magnitude earthquake struck near Victoria, British Columbia in Canada late Tuesday night, but no injuries or damage have been reported.

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A 4.8-magnitude earthquake struck near Victoria, British Columbia in Canada at about 11:39 p.m. on Tuesday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The quake occurred about 11 miles northeast of Victoria, near North Saanich, and was about 31 miles deep, according to the USGS.

Randy Baldwin, a USGS geophysicist, said the quake was felt for a radius of 150 miles, but he hadn’t heard of any major damage or recorded aftershocks.

It’s not unusual for an earthquake of this size to hit along the West Coast and Vancouver Island because there’s a large subduction zone in the area that produces lots of seismic activity, Baldwin said.

Tom Eades, a 911 dispatcher with the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office in Washington, says his agency received lots of calls but no reports of damage or injuries. The agency is in the San Juan Islands, between Vancouver Island in British Columbia and mainland Washington.

The USGS website recorded more than 10,000 reports of the quake being felt.